


Name Change

by ollifree



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26011135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ollifree/pseuds/ollifree
Summary: When Kendra gets her soulmate tattoo, it's not what she expects.
Relationships: Female Inquisitor/Iron Bull, Inquisitor/Iron Bull, The Iron Bull/Female Trevelyan (Dragon Age), The Iron Bull/Trevelyan (Dragon Age)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 53





	Name Change

She’s fourteen, scrubbing off dirt and sweat, when her left wrist stings. Her eyes widen and her breathing stops. Today? _Now_? She rubs the washrag against the spot and turns over her arm.

That’s not a name.

That’s a...that’s a…

That’s not a name!

It looks like a shipment number in one of Father’s ledgers.

But, that—that _can’t_ be right. _Everyone_ has a soulmate! Even aromantics have platonic ones! Did it...did it go wrong?

She decides she doesn’t want to look at the tattoo anymore. She’s half-dressed when there’s a _BANG_ on her door.

“Kendra! You too!?” Darrell’s face lights when he sees the sleeve she’s tugged to cover her arm. He pounces on the bed and leans over her in excitement. “What’s their name?”

“I’m not telling.”

“Not… Why not?” His face crumples from elated to crestfallen. “I won’t tell anyone else, if that’s what you mean.”

It’s not. Not this time. She knows he gets it. Because, even though she won’t look at him, she can feel him backing away.

“Please?”

“No.”

“...Fine. Then, I won’t tell you mine!” Darrell grabs his wrist and runs out of the room.

Kendra leaves once she’s fully dressed and finds her parents to announce she wants to go to town for gloves. Long ones. Her parents might normally question it, she certainly sees the knowing in Mother’s eyes, but Kendra thinks they’re still recovering from Aldrich being taken to the Circle. They certainly don’t ask her why like they normally would. Which is fine. She doesn’t want to tell them why, this time. Some hours later she returns home with a pair of white satin gloves that reach her elbows.

It’s impossible to keep a secret with how big their family is. She finds out the name of Darrell’s soulmate later that day. Whoever Dorian Pavus is, he’s a lucky son of a whore. And not just because he has an actual _name_.

She’s twenty-nine when the sky explodes and she meets Dorian. Not at the same time. The sky explodes and _then_ she meets Dorian.

He does a good job of hiding it, but there’s the slightest touch of hope on his face when she introduces herself as “Trevelyan”. He knows, he says. She’s sure. He probably heard about “some Trevelyan lady a-fallin’ out the sky” and hopped the first boat to Ferelden. Or, some name close to Trevelyan. She’s heard a few variations.

Kendra sits on it a while. In the end, she decides not to include the name of her newest companion in her letters home. She hasn’t included any names so far: there’s no telling what might befall a letter between Haven and Ostwick. And, if possible, she wants to be in the room when Darrell finds out.

In the past fifteen years she’s done some research. Supposedly, only one person in the known history of Thedas had no tattoo.

Andraste.

As if hearing “Herald” tossed about when the entire world wanted her dead wasn’t already terrifying.

She also meets The Iron Bull. Noticeable in first, that he’s huge; and second, that the tattoo on his left wrist has been blacked out. Apparently, soulmates aren’t part of the qun.

Having sex with someone other than a soulmate isn’t rare in Thedas. Kendra’s certainly contributed. It’s fun. Cathartic. They’ve moved from Haven to Skyhold when she starts to wonder if Bull might be interested in either of those things.

She’s thirty-one when they get back from the Storm Coast. She wants a bath hot enough to scald her flesh and she wants someone _else_ to have to tell Josephine that no, the alliance with the qun isn’t going through. Thanks for your efforts in arranging a peace never before made on this scale, anyway.

Kendra takes the bath first.

Her arm dangles off the side of the tub as green light reflects off the tiled floor to the walls and ceiling.

Perks of having a glowing hand: free light shows.

Just need to figure out what the rest of them are.

A dull ache throbs in her forearm. She really needs to get out of this tub and go break the news to Josephine. Then finally make a decision on where those supplies are going. Probably respond to a few letters from allies they _do_ have afterwards.

Drunk. She should get drunk. Getting drunk sounds _marvelous_.

“Ow!” A sharp spike of pain sears her wrist. Kendra bolts up to demand of her arm, “Fuck’s wrong with you?”

Neither the Mark nor her wyvern bites have felt quite like...that.

Kendra blinks. Blinks again. They don’t...they don’t _change_ do they?

She has a name now.

There’s a _name_ on her _arm_ now.

Kendra brings her hand with a changed tattoo up to her eyes. Uses it to push back her hair. She definitely laughs, and does not at all cry a little.

Of _course_ it would include the article at the front of his name.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey remember when Bull says people don't have names under the qun so much as they have serial numbers? Isn't that fucked up? Isn't it fucked up they did that to an Islam-coded religion? I'm sorry I used that for this fic.


End file.
